...and the older he is, the more tired he gets...pretty sure age is a factor in his dip in form.

I agree.
The gap between top players are actually very small. When Fed declined even only 1% due to older age in stamina and power, he's bound to make more and more mistakes, shanking and spraying ball.
He still posses great instinct and talent, and hence it can be frustrating in his matches because you can see glimpses of brilliance.

I think after winning wimby and taking the last important record, and losing olympics, Fed has lost motivation considerably.

You are wrong. He didn't lose motivation. He is tried like anyone would be after the year he had. It was emotional and long. Roger never loses motivation because he plays for the love of the game and not for records.

I'm actually surprised that most people think Murray will win. For me, Federer is the favourite in this one. I think it's difficult to read too much into Fed's match vs del Potro. He already knew he had qualified. It's also difficult to read too much into their last 2 matches because of the change of conditions. If there's any tournament where the surface/arena benefit Federer, it's this one. Murray can win but I think he has to win the first set and get the crowd fully behind him.

For the record, I want to see a Murray-Djokovic final.

Looks to me that most fan posters are nervous about this match - those hoping Murray will win are more unsure about this happening than those hoping Federer will win. Those hoping neither will win the final, however, seems to like Murray's chances better. And he has looked better so far this tournament. But of course, history suggests Federer is better here. So I'm not surprised everybody is nervous...I hope for an exciting match and a worthy end of season for one of them.

Honestly, had you told me the old man would win Wimbledon and reach #1 again I would have laughed at you this time last year, so it's ok if he loses now, besides no one has won WTF three years in a row so he's due to lose now IMO.

I think after winning wimby and taking the last important record, and losing olympics, Fed has lost motivation considerably.

The last I checked, the 2012 Western & Southern Open Cincinnati Masters 1000 was after Wimbledon and the Olympics, and arguably, Roger Federer played the best he has played this year for an entire tournament there. He faced only 3 break points the entire tournament and saved them. He won all 3 tiebreakers he played against Fish, Wawrinka, and Djokovic. Fish and Wawrinka may have played their best matches of the year in a losing effort to Federer, and Djokovic got bageled (though Nole's poor play contributed to that).

I would say that Federer probably peaked that tournament, and would agree that he has not been generally as good since then, probably due to a combination of mental and physical fatigue and attention for his time since regaining #1. Since the US Open this year, he has not been able to fence in his drops in focus and turn matches around as he had for almost 10 months or so since last year's Basel. He has also lost 2 key tiebreakers to Del Potro rather badly. One to lose the final in Basel, and one at London's O2 in the 3rd RR round in the first set. But, he did reach the final in Basel, and had flashes of brilliance here and there in his matches at O2 so it's not like he has totally fallen apart. His only losses since and including the US Open, have come to Berdych, Murray, and Del Potro, all tough players for him at times in the past.

Andy Murray's and Novak Djokovic's standard also hasn't been very good since Shanghai. They both performed poorly in Paris for whatever reason. Then at O2, Djokovic played poorly in the first round, but was very fortunate to be playing an even worse Tsonga. Since that match, he has slightly improved, the match Murray and Djokovic played was full of unforced errors (84 - D40, M44) and was lost more than won, and his best match thus far was against Berdych, an almost perfect match-up (HTH 11-1). Del Potro and Ferrer have probably been playing the best level indoors of any of the participants since Shanghai, Ferrer only losing to his worst match-up, Federer, and Del Potro losing to Ferrer.

We will see who can manage to pull their game together for the semifinals to go on to the final. Probably Del Potro and Djokovic appear to have the most confidence of the remaining participants. Djokovic cannot afford to play a poor first set against Del Potro, and should count on his great defense to frustrate Juan Martin. I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome with regard to Murray vs. Federer. They have both played up and down during their matches here. It just depends on who is more up than down for the longest tonight.

Roger may not win this but you better believe he is going to give it his all. He is burned out but he still wants to win this badly. And maybe he just has enough in the tank for one last push.

And Murray might have enough pushing for one last tank

Still if Roger loses this match I guess it says a lot. WTF was his new "living room" when Wimbledon doesn't belong to him anymore. Quite a few points at stake too. Federer hasn't defended nearly enough post USO. Remaining 1-2 in the rankings is likely top priority for seeding purposes. Falling already in the SF will cost him big points as defending champion. If he still dreams of keeping Murray behind next year too it's gonna get very tricky if Murray wins WTF.

- we know how Roger likes to prove the haters wrong and boy are the haters out in full force (the material we have in case Roger wins ).
- MTF tends to be more wrong than right and the poll has murray as the winner with 63,1%.
- Roger has never lost in 2 sets in the YEC so I expect at least a 3 set match and if Roger is serving decent he may have the edge. Also murray has never made the finals.

Roger is far from his best right now but he alaways gives it his all in the YEC. He played in 2005 and 2008 despite being injured and was 1 set way from winning in 2005 and gave murray (who had already qualified for the semis) such a challenge in the 3rd RR match that murray was left dead tired and lost in the semis (hope that win was worth more than the title murray ).

As someone said we can't look too much into the del potro match simply because Roger was already qualified and he tends to not tire himslef a lot when he has a match next day (anyone remember USO 2010 or 2011 where Roger said that during his semi match he was thinking about the fact that the finals were the next day and that he would be tired). Roger thinks about that and that's why the del potro match has to be taken with a pinch of salt.